"Creme (2005) notes that [when we ask teaching students to write a reflective journal] we require more than a personal voice: we ask our students to open themselves up in the process of writing on very personal experiences, which means being honest and authentic in what they write. This involves taking a risk in the content they write" (Pavlovich 2007:285). This blog is a candid reflection on my experiences as a trainee teacher, to only include good experiences would not be truly reflective or representative of my experience.

Menu

From PEST to PESTLE to PESTLE C to STEEPLES to WT*

Quite fitting that the week I’m lesson planning on how to carry out a PESTLE for business reasons we study the expanded STEEPLES in teacher training (academic side of things).

I remember when it was a good old fashioned PEST – Political, Economic, Social and Technological

Then it expanded to PESTLE – adding in the legal and environmental which used to be covered under political and social anyway but this was making it all more clear and easier

Then to make it even more clear and simple it expanded again to PESTLE C – adding in a C for Cultural which used to be covered really under the social element of the original model. But hey! in for a penny in for a pound, let’s make this ever more simple and easy to use and let’s ignore the fact that now we are getting confused because we’re not sure where we put things like Health and Safety Law, it used to fit nicely under the P but now does it go under P or L? What about Taxation and Import Export Levies – they used to go comfotably under Economic with a little bit of ambiguity as to whether or not to stick them under Policital, but now it’s simpler and we know that they go under either the P, the E or the L,or maybe all of them.

So now it’s getting a bit complex and confusing so let’s make it simpler and call it STEEPLES – just when everyone’s used to starting with Policital and Economic and working through to C we not only add another S and another E but we also mix all the letters up. Now it’s really straightforward. We have S for Social, T for Technological, E for Economic, E for Environmental, P for Political, L for Legal, E for … what exactly is that E for? and S for Sustainability which would by its nature have elements which fit under economic or social or legal. Is that other E for Equality? I’ve no idea. If it is then surely that would fit under the original P or the later added L.

So yes, this is how you make things easier to understand and easier to use.